Nothing about the Iraq fiasco should be called a success, despite President Obama's attempt to provide closure to the troops misused and abused since the launch of that war. We must
remember the truth about this catastrophic, unpopular, vicious war, and
we must fight the strong national impulse to salvage our self-image in
platitudes. If we do that, it becomes terribly clear that the only
people for whom this nightmare was a success are the super-rich CEOs of
war industry corporations who made a killing during the wars we launched
since 2001.

Spending on contracts and grants performed in Iraq and
Afghanistan in support of operations in those countries is expected to
exceed $206 billion through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2011.

The commission's final report said that somewhere between $31 and $60
billion has been lost through contract waste and fraud in the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Put another way, war profiteers took as much as
$60 billion from taxpayers and didn't give us anything in return.